App doesn’t connect
Not sure why, but I cannot get my CatGenie connected to the app. Just doesn’t work.
Buyer beware
Does not work. Company offers no support.
App activity timeline is lagging
First few days it was great to follow their activities. After that I either can see up to hours ago or sometimes completely blank. The app is very unreliable.
This update made the UI worse
Besides being terribly confused for a good 3 minutes by the fact that instead of a nice block to represent cleaning on the timeline, there’s a weird squiggly shape that looks like an uneven cleaning job (hint: it’s a drawing of the side view of the genie box... why???)...
Besides that, now I have to toggle down each time I go to the Devices page in order to see which setting my box is currently on. As someone whose cat has moods, which include sleeping in his box, sometimes I have to toggle off Auto because there’s no reason to clean.
The new design assumes a single user has multiple boxes and doesn’t want to see anything more than the name of the box and a “start” button. This requires normal users with only one box to click an extra time just to view basic information that was previously displayed right away, and doesn’t actually save any space. Scrolling down, if you REALLY have more than 3 boxes, is very easy. Finding the right place to click, now, to view what setting my box is on, is NOT easy and VERY ANNOYING.
PUT IT BACK.
Besides that, now I have to toggle down each time I go to the Devices page in order to see which setting my box is currently on. As someone whose cat has moods, which include sleeping in his box, sometimes I have to toggle off Auto because there’s no reason to clean.
The new design assumes a single user has multiple boxes and doesn’t want to see anything more than the name of the box and a “start” button. This requires normal users with only one box to click an extra time just to view basic information that was previously displayed right away, and doesn’t actually save any space. Scrolling down, if you REALLY have more than 3 boxes, is very easy. Finding the right place to click, now, to view what setting my box is on, is NOT easy and VERY ANNOYING.
PUT IT BACK.
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Don’t buy product until app is fixed
I wouldn’t recommend buying this product until the most recent horrible update to the app is fixed.
There is no point to having the app on my phone anymore. With the latest update you took away the ability to press the “play” button on my phone. Now everything has to be done at the unit. If there was an issue with the unit before I’d get an alert and could fix it remotely. Not a possibility now which means I have to turn off cat activation mode if I want to leave the house and not wonder if the cats will have a functioning litter box.
There is no point to having the app on my phone anymore. With the latest update you took away the ability to press the “play” button on my phone. Now everything has to be done at the unit. If there was an issue with the unit before I’d get an alert and could fix it remotely. Not a possibility now which means I have to turn off cat activation mode if I want to leave the house and not wonder if the cats will have a functioning litter box.
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Doesn’t even work
New update doesn’t even work. Launched it and nothing. Just a blank white page. Really guys. No beta testing. What the hell?
5th cat genie, but this stinks
This app is just simply not ready for prime time. No way to have log ins on multiple devices, no apparent way to program cats. Great idea, terrible execution.
Cat genie ai
We love the cat genie but the app keeps breaking. It stuck on click to abort cycle and only fix is to unpair the app to the cat genie and do setup again... please fix the bugs
Love the Genie, but...
We love the Genie but it would be nice to have 2 users on a device. The hubby does the maintenance and I order the supplies. This feature seems to be the only downfall. I hope this feature can be added soon.
Product improvement (one step at a time)
I’ve had a CatGenie for almost a decade (multiple units), and I’ve been asking for smartphone compatibility and an app for many years. I’m happy to see that the manufacturer is finally taking baby steps towards that. That said:
••••••Connectivity••••••
The app is fairly easy to set up, but feels somewhat basic. For one, you can only connect a single mobile user to it (one phone number only; not sure about the number of devices per number) - that is disappointing.
••••••Added Features••••••
The CatGenie AI and this app basically digitalize the original unit’s control pad and make it WiFi accessible. Beyond that, it doesn’t offer much. A lot of it seems a bit gimmicky, such as adding my cats’ profiles, incl. their birthdays, breed, or pictures. The app is NOT able to distinguish between different cats, although it alludes that it can.
Its activity log is really just a page of time stamps. Although useful, it doesn’t do anything with the data - no analysis or even a practical display of it.***
I do appreciate the progress bar for the cleaning cycle, as well as the count on how many cycles the cartridge has left. However, the progress bar is in ‘% completed,’ where a countdown timer with ‘minutes remaining’ would be more sensible and more transparent (FYI: a full cycle lasts 40 minutes).
••••••In Conclusion••••••
This has never been a product that’s made enormous advances at a time, and the CatGenie as a product overall has got its flaws for sure. Nevertheless, it does beat scooping cat litter by a country mile. Be patient, it’ll get better - it always does (hardware & software both).
The app does add value to the CatGenie - I’d give the app 3 stars, 4 stars for the product overall.
***a recent update has added a graph display under the ‘activity’ tab. It used to be just time stamp log entries. Looks better now, provides a better display of usage stats (updated 05/29/20)
••••••Connectivity••••••
The app is fairly easy to set up, but feels somewhat basic. For one, you can only connect a single mobile user to it (one phone number only; not sure about the number of devices per number) - that is disappointing.
••••••Added Features••••••
The CatGenie AI and this app basically digitalize the original unit’s control pad and make it WiFi accessible. Beyond that, it doesn’t offer much. A lot of it seems a bit gimmicky, such as adding my cats’ profiles, incl. their birthdays, breed, or pictures. The app is NOT able to distinguish between different cats, although it alludes that it can.
Its activity log is really just a page of time stamps. Although useful, it doesn’t do anything with the data - no analysis or even a practical display of it.***
I do appreciate the progress bar for the cleaning cycle, as well as the count on how many cycles the cartridge has left. However, the progress bar is in ‘% completed,’ where a countdown timer with ‘minutes remaining’ would be more sensible and more transparent (FYI: a full cycle lasts 40 minutes).
••••••In Conclusion••••••
This has never been a product that’s made enormous advances at a time, and the CatGenie as a product overall has got its flaws for sure. Nevertheless, it does beat scooping cat litter by a country mile. Be patient, it’ll get better - it always does (hardware & software both).
The app does add value to the CatGenie - I’d give the app 3 stars, 4 stars for the product overall.
***a recent update has added a graph display under the ‘activity’ tab. It used to be just time stamp log entries. Looks better now, provides a better display of usage stats (updated 05/29/20)
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